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ADDRESSES 



INAUGURATION OF WILLIAM PEPPER, M.D. 



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PROVOST OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



February 22, 1881. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET, 

1881. 



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ADDRESSES 



INAUGURATION OF WILLIAM PEPPER. M.D. 



PROVOST OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



February 22, 1881 




PHILADELPHIA: 
COLLINS, PRINTER, 705 JAYNE STREET 

1881. 



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William Pepper, M.D., was elected Provost of the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania on the 12th clay of January, 1881. 

He succeeded Charles J. Stille, LL.D., who resigned the 
office at the beginning of the collegiate year, September, 1880. 
The Board of Trustees of the University received the accept- 
ance of Dr. Pepper on the 1st day of February, and resolved 
that his inauguration as Provost should take place on the 22d 
day of the same month in the American Academy of Music. 

At the appointed time the Governor of the State, ex officio 
President of the Board of Trustees, and Dr. Pepper met the 
Trustees, Faculties, and invited guests in the Foyer of the 
Academy of Music, and proceeded with them to the stage, 
where the ceremonies were held, as follows : — 

Prayer by the Rev. George Dana Boardman, D.D. 

Presentation of Dr. Pepper to the Governor by Rev. Henry 
J. Morton, D.D. 



Address by the Governor of the State, with the delivery of 
the keys of the University, to Dr. Pepper. 



Address of welcome on behalf of the Faculties by Rev. 
Charles P. Krauth, D.D., LL.D., Vice-Provost of the Uni- 
versity. 

Address by Provost Pepper. 

Benediction by the Rev. Charles W. Schaeffer, D.D. 



V '- 



PRAYER 



BY THE 



Rev. GEORGE DANA BOARDMAN, D.D. 



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PRAYER. 



Almighty and everlasting God, Maker of heaven 
and earth, the blessed and only Potentate, the King 
of kings and Lord of lords, we adore Thee for what 
Thou art in Thyself, a God infinite in every per- 
fection, who wast and who art and who art to come 
the one Lord God Almighty. We adore Thee for 
what Thou art in Thy dealings with the children 
of men; a God merciful and gracious, long suffer- 
ing, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping 
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and trans- 
gression and sin. 

We come before Thy presence with thanksgiving, 
blessing Thee for the glad occasion which has sum- 
moned us hither. We thank Thee for our Uni- 
versity, for its venerable history, for the hopes 
which cluster around this hour. Behold with 
favor Thy servant, the Provost, about to be in- 
vested with the keys of his great office ; grant unto 
him long to live, evermore enriching him with the 
aid of Thy own counsel and grace, evermore 
assuring him of the sense of Thy approval. Be- 
hold also with favor Thy servants, his associates 
in the various departments and faculties, granting 
unto them all wisdom and fidelity, whether in ad- 
ministration or in instruction. Let Thy blessing 



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rest upon Thy servants, the Board of Trustees, be- 
stowmg upon them the spirit of wisdom and devo- 
tion in all their councils and conclusions. Vouch- 
safe unto all Thy servants, the undergraduates, the 
spirit of study and useful ambition. Follow with 
Thy grace all who have gone forth from our walls, 
enablins: them to fulfil their vocations in whatever 
sphere of life Thy providence has placed them. 
Let Thy blessing rest upon all educational institu- 
tions throughout our land, enabling them so to 
train our youths as that they shall become useful 
citizens, worthy of the memory of him whose 
birth the nation this day celebrates. Kegard with 
favor Thy servants, the President of the United 
States, the Governor of Pennsylvania, the Mayor 
of Philadelphia, and all the magistrates in all the 
States. Let the people praise Thee, O God; let 
all the people praise Thee. Pour Thy blessing 
upon all the nations of the earth, granting unto 
them speedy knowledge of the great salvation 
which Thou dost offer unto all men in the person 
and in the work of Thy only begotten and incar- 
nate Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; in 
whose name we offer this our homage and suppli- 
cation. 

And now unto Him that is able to do exceeding 
abundantly above all that we ask or think, ac- 
cording to the power that worketh in us, unto Him 
be the glory in the Church by Christ Jesus 
throuofhout all asfes, world without end. Amen. 



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ADDRESS BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE, 



WITH THE 



DELIVERY OF THE KEYS OF THE UNIVERSITY 



DR. PEPPEE. 



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ADDRESS BY HON. HENRY M. HOYT. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : — 

I DO not feel at liberty to enter upon any ex- 
tended historical notice of the University of Penn- 
sylvania. The character of my audience renders it 
unnecessary, and other exercises preclude it. With 
four exceptions, Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, 
and Princeton, it is the oldest institution of learn- 
ing in the United States. Organized some years 
earlier, it was lirst incorporated in 1753 as " The 
Trustees of the Academy and Charitable School 
in the Province of Pennsylvania," its Body and 
Faculty being designated in the charter of 1755 as 
"the Provost, Yice-Provost, and Professors of the 
College and Academy of Philadelphia, in the Pro- 
vince of Pennsylvania." 

In 1779, "The Trustees of the University of 
the State of Pennsylvania" were incorporated. 
This act, intended to legalize a union of two enter- 
prises, led to much political and judicial discussion. 
The present form of the institution as the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania grew out of the consolida- 
tion made in the act of 1791, under the corporate 
name of "The Trustees of the University of Penn- 
sylvania." 



12 



As early as 1744, Benjamin Franklin, afterwards 
first President of the Board, had sketched the plan 
of the school, which, in 1749, was carried out, and 
became the foundation upon which the institution 
was built. Its first Provost was Doctor William 
Smith. The "course of studies" laid out by Doc- 
tor Smith formed the general system of instruction 
afterwards adopted in American colleges. When 
we refiect that the standard of liberal education 
was then necessarily low in the colonies, the breadth 
of his scheme is notable. The principle with which 
he set out is worthy of remembrance, and is as true 
now as then, " that nothing can be proposed by any 
scheme of collegiate education but to lay such a 
general foundation in all branches of literature as 
may enable the youth to perfect themselves in those 
particular parts to which their business or genius 
may afterwards lead them ; and scarce anything 
has more obstructed the advancement of sound 
learning than a vain imagination that a few years 
spent at college can render youth such absolute 
masters of science as to absolve them from all 
future study." 

David Rittenhouse early became connected with 
the University. The first formal commencement 
occurred in 1757, when Paul Jackson, Jacob 
Duche, Francis Hopkinson, Samuel Magaw, Hugh 
Williamson, James Latta, and John Morgan re- 
ceived the degree of Bachelor of Arts. 

From that day onward it has piu^sued an honor- 
able, conservative, successful, and only too modest 
a career. I say, too modest, because neither with- 
in nor without the limits of this State is there any 



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adequate iinderstaiidiiig of the scope of the estab- 
lishment. In importance, in wealth, and in the 
close relation to, and recognition by the State 
authorities, it may fairly claim to be the University 
of Pennsylvania. I^ot, perhaps, that it makes 
other claim than is based upon the quality of work 
it has produced. It is by virtue of its recognition 
of the State authorities that the Governor, ex officio, 
has the privilege and honor to lend his official sanc- 
tion to these ceremonies. 

The University, it will then be seen, was con- 
ceived in the clearest light of educational require- 
ments ; had its birth in the midst of the very forma- 
tive infinences of the Province, and its motives in 
the meli who laid the foundation of pure and simple 
republicanism, and carried forward the growth of 
the Province into a Commonwealth based on the 
larsrest idea of individual freedom and civil and 
religions liberty. It seems as though the State 
and the University had proceeded from a common 
centre, each reaching the best results, and their 
founders, identical in name and purposes, arriving, 
in that early day, at the highest attainment in gov- 
ernmental and scholastic excellence. The names, 
especially, which appear as members of the early 
Boards of Trustees, are efficiently represented by 
descendants, bearing them, in all the great affairs 
of society, here at this day, and have fittingly pre- 
served the continuity of influence between the old 
and the new — the past and the present. 

The University has, therefore, individuality and a 
history, is of clean lineage, and inherits a valuable 
body of traditions. It is thus compelled to assume 



mum 



14 



no ordinary responsibility for the future. Proud 
of its worthy past, widely rooted in accomplished 
successes, strong in the loyalty of its children, 
many of Avhom have gathered about it to-day, con- 
scious of present eminence, it may turn to the 
future with confidence. It occupies a vantage- 
ground here in a city of high culture, moral strength, 
and matei'ial prosperity, much of which is, doubt- 
less, its own creation. It is surrounded by com- 
munities of great energy, thrift, and alive in the 
appreciation of its value. From these sources 
should flow to its thousands of young men (and 
I trust in due time, and under proper limitations, 
young women), as to a "propitious mother." It has 
the purpose, the means, and the appliances to mould 
them into such form as shall befit them for citizen- 
ship and achievement in the midst of a civilization 
of the highest type, and in a land of the largest 
freedom. I am not persuaded that, in a great city, 
it will ever attract a large body of pupils fi'om the 
outside to the Academical department, and in this 
I shall be glad to find myself in error. But Phila- 
delphia is already a literary and scientific centre. 
The University of Pennsylvania can, and should, 
make this city the great centre in America for the 
graduates from all the colleges in the land, to 
which they may gather to pursue post-graduate 
study and work in all your Departments of Lite- 
rature, Art, Science, Philosophy, and Technical 
theory and practice. It should be the supreme 
effort of the Trustees to provide such an equip- 
ment in men, and endowment, and mechanism as 
shall enable it to set up and justify the claim for a 



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15 



superiority which shall compel recognition every- 
where in the United States. 



Provost Pepper, Sir: — 

The events of this day will affect your own 
career and the fortunes of the University of Penn- 
sylvania. That they will terminate in an auspicious 
outcome for you and it has been in the contempla- 
tion of the Trustees as well as yourself. Such 
result has been the motive upon which you have 
entered upon your mutual covenants. Whoever 
undertakes the guidance of an educational struc- 
ture like this University assumes a conspicuous, 
yet dangerous and delicate public trust : conspicu- 
ous, because it stands out boldly as a great reme- 
dial and sustaining agency, supplementing the pro- 
gressive tendencies of mankind, seeking, if they 
may haply find, better things ; dangerous, because 
failure has ill-omened disaster in its train, and 
concentrates responsibility upon one head; delicate, 
because, while a great success is attainable, it must 
come from the nice adjustment of many means to 
one end, wide intelligence, keen perceptions of life 
and men, skilful and energetic executive force. 
In this day, not only must the University covei* 
with its curriculum the range of all humanity and 
all knowledge, but its administration must be in 
full apprehension of, and quick sympathy with, 
modern methods and products. Its utilities do not 
terminate with the year's work, but they go on 
forever. Its functions are to assimilate all the 
facts of the world within and the world without, 
digested free from error, falsehood, and sophistry, 



16 



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returned to society, through that portion of the 
community subjected to its alchemy, for the health, 
strength, and growth of the body politic. 

To such an institution is confided the realization 
of the full definition of education, "the instruction 
of the intellect in the laws of nature, under which 
name are included not merely things and their 
forces, but men and their ways, and the fashioning 
of the affections and of the will into an earnest 
and living desire to move in harmony with these 
laws" — the culture of men, "whose passions are 
trained to come to heel by a resolute purpose, and 
who have learned to love all beauty, whether of 
nature or art, to hate all vileness, and to respect 
others as themselves." 

The modern processes are direct, incisive, and 
exact. In the world of fact, it is to find out "what 
is," and how; in the world of morals, "what ought 
to be," and wherefore. Hypothesis goes over- 
board to make room for wide and safe induction. 
In physics, things must be reduced to their lowest 
elements ; propositions in metaphysics and social 
economy to their lowest terms. Unity must be 
found in diversity, simplicity must be traced in 
complexit}^ and chaos must be made to yield the 
cosmos. These triumphs the philosophy of modern 
teaching is enabling us to make. Educators who, 
like yourself, preside over a mechanism such as this, 
hold the crucial tests in investigation. The secrets 
of man and nature rarely elude longer the subtle 
methods of detection you have organized. The lines 
of Fraunhofer puzzled you for a generation. But the 
spectroscope of Kirchoff is turned to the sun or 



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17 

into the starry night, and each atom and element, 
burning and vibrating in the abj^ss of space, regis- 
ters its trembling contents in our view; or the 
practical student of to-day turns it upon the cruci- 
ble of molten metal in one of our monster steel- 
works, and its texture and quality, as merchantable 
steel, are fixed ; but, between them, the kinship of 
the material heaven and earth is established. 

Lindley Murray worries and wearies us with his 
number and case, mood and tense in grammar, as 
if the English language were a thing by itself, 
and out of all relation with other human insti'u- 
mentality. Comparative philology tells how the 
Aryan family has streamed down from its original 
home in Asia; and that Homer, Yirgil, Goethe, 
and Shakspeare have only used the universal Ian- * 

guage of humanity. This recent science takes all i 

languages in its single grasp, analyzes and classi- i* 

fies them, and we have a residue of significant \ 

roots, common to Jew and Gentile, Greek, ' 

Scythian, and Barbarian, in which mankind have f: 

talked of strength, labor, and sorrow, " life, death, : 

and the judgment to come." "Within a few days, i 

upon a blackboard in one of our public schools, I ( 

have seen the paradigm of a Latin verb displayed ( 

with its root, its prefixes, and suffixes, all its ) 

inflections, skeletonized, each element of which, [ 

we now know, was once significant. That black- f 

board contained more science about a Latin and [ 

Greek verb than my honored teacher, in a time not 
yet so very olden, ever hinted there was in them, 
in all the years spent in " translating" and " pars- 
ing" Plautus, Terence^ Sophocles, and Euripides- 



18 



The philosophy of history teaches us that the 
men of Plutarch were not bein^^s of another race, 
but that they were men of like passions with our- 
selves. Denuded of anger and dogmatism and 
the blood which stains the annals of our race, all 
the practical, political teachings of the past lead 
up to the simple and easy proposition in our own 
constitution, always obscurely seen, but never 
before quite formulated — " All governments derive 
their just powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned." This is the epitome of the lessons of all 
anarchy, struggles, and wars, and the summation, 
it is to be hoped, of the dark series. 

It would be a pleasure to allow our Legal friends 
to be the practitioners of an "exact science;" but 
the amazing variety and tortuosity of human ac- 
tions relieve them from the attempt at a uniform 
application of "the law," "the perfection of human 
reason" — " defective by reason of its universality" 
— the single body of organized principles in which 
the rule proves the exception. 

It is just conceivable to many of us how an 
artist paints a picture, or a musician writes the 
score of an opera. But when j^our mathematical 
colleagues venture to reduce all the phenomena of 
the universe to "modes of motion" and "equa- 
tions," and discourse of "quaternions" and "tri- 
linear coordinates," they take refuge behind a cur- 
tain of thick darkness, where few of us dare attempt 
to follow them. 

The sturdy old disputants over creeds, dogma, 
and cultus are, at last, on converging lines ; but I 
am reminded that, while you teach Ethics here, you 



19 



have not as yet organized a Theological Depart- 
ment. 

In the presence of the modern anatomist, with 
his scalpel, and a case of acute surgery on hand, 
an average human being is invested with no more 
sanctity or mystery than a Waltham watch in the 
hands of its maker. As a piece of machinery, the 
man and the watch are to be treated on the same 
plane of mechanical certainty. When it comes to 
pathology and therapeutics, the ordinary patient 
may justifiably breathe easier while the " doctors," 
Hippocrates being dead these two thousand years 
and more, still confront each other with "doc- 
trines." 

But it ill becomes a layman, such as I, to dis- 
course of these things to professors, such as you 
and your co-laborers, in this presence — the threshold 
of the greatest medical schools in the world. 

It is the determinate office of yourself, and of 
the University whose destiny you are now to con- 
trol, to lay these and other great generalizations, 
and the facts out of which they flow, before your 
pupils. But not these facts alone. Your duties 
are not to be limited to the mere imparting of in- 
formation. You are to show the relations of cause 
and effect between them — of antecedent and con- 
sequent — of premises and conclusion. 

You are to disclose the nexus by which, philo- 
sophically, they are tied together. You are to 
insist that all nature is one; that the essential 
principles of humanity are one; that all truth is 
one. While you point out how unalterable are the 
fixed laws in the region of matter, and the fixed 



i 



20 



laws in the region of mind, you are not to forget 
that the "Lord of sciences is the Lord of sonls" 
as well. We mortals stand here in the shadow of 
the Infinite, which is ever brooding over us. When 
we come to repent, as repent we must, let us not 
forget " that in his repentance, man weeps, not upon 
the lap of nature, but at the feet of God." 

PRESENTATION OF THE KEYS OF THE UNIVERSITY. 

Sir, standing, in a sense, for the Coriimon wealth, 
speaking for the Board of Trustees, and represent- 
ing the expectations of the great body of your 
personal friends, it gives me pleasure to declare the 
most explicit belief that you will fill all the high 
conditions of your new calling, and meet all the 
demands of the new situation in which you now 
find yourself. Permit me, then, in their name to 
testify formally to that belief, by handing you these 
symbols of your full investiture with all the au- 
thority they can confer upon you — that of the 
Provost of the University of Pennsylvania. 



REPLY OF DR. PEPPER. 

I gladly accept this key of my office as Provost 
of the University of Pennsylvania, not being un- 
mindful of the weighty responsibilities attaching 
to it, but trusting humbly that, under the blessing 
and guidance of Almighty God, the efforts of my 
associates and myself to promote the welfare of 
this Institution may be rightly directed. 



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ADDRESS OF WELCOME 



ON BEHALF OF THE TRUSTEES. 



BY 

Rev. CHARLES P. KRAUTH, D.D.,LL.D., 

VICE-PKOVOST OF THE UNIVERSITY. 



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ADDRESS BY CHARLES P. KRAUTH, D.D, LL.D. 



It has become my duty, by the request of the 
Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, to 
oflfer an official welcome, in the name of its Facul- 
ties, to the gentleman on whom our Board, by its 
unanimous choice of him as Provost, has conferred 
the highest office and the highest honor in its gift. 

The Faculties would welcome the entrance of the 
Provost on his office, were it for no higher reason 
than that it brings with it the relief of a protracted 
suspense. Whatever relative efficiency the best 
temporary arrangements may have, they involve, 
in some degree at least, a pause. The "pulse of 
the machine" beats more slowly. Expectancy is 
impotency. Interregna, vice-regencies, and all pro- 
visional governments are characteristically weak. 
A body needs one head; and that head must be 
firmly united with it, not by mechanical, but by 
vital bonds. We welcome one by whom the com- 
plete normal organism is restored. As a body we 
welcome our ofiicial head. 

But the welcome is intensified by the fact that 
the great need of our University has been supplied 
from her own home, and her own ranks. Our 
Trustees have given us as Provost a native of the 



24 



State for whose advantage first, though not alone, 
our University was established, and w^hose name 
she bears. They have given us a native of the 
city for which our University has done so much, 
and which has so vital a stake in her prosperity. 
Our Provost comes to the service of his Alma 
Mater. He has taken from her hand the two 
crowns of Academic laurels ; he has pursued his 
professional studies in her medical school, and has 
occupied an honored place by the side of men who 
were once his instructors. There was but one 
hio-her step, and that he has now been called to 
take. " Them that honor me I will honor." 

Our local feeling is gratified the more because 
local feeling had no illicit influence in the choice. 
The besetting sin of Philadelphia lies in the con- 
trary direction. She is often the last to recognize 
the merit of her own citizens. Pesidence in her 
midst seems almost a barrier to the honors she con- 
fers. She forgets her children who deserve well of 
her, and wonders why other places have so many 
more men of renown. The fame of her sons comes 
to her as an echo, and the echo must be very clear, 
and repeated many times, before she deigns to notice 
it. Our Board so epitomizes the best Philadelphia, 
its professional life, its commerce, its manufactur- 
ing interests, its solid wealth, and its enterprise, 
its political forces, its science and literature, its 
renown, audits social culture, that we may consider 
its act as representative, and rejoice that our cit}^ 
has come, in this case at least, to that best repent- 
ance, sorrow verified in amendment. "We welcome 
our Provost because he comes invested with the 



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25 



credentials which assure us that in the long-de- 
ferred and well-weighed judg-ment of the Board he 
is the man needed for the great crisis which has 
been reached in the history of the University. We 
are not taking off our armor at the close of a great 
battle, fought and won; we are only fairly girding 
it on. After the opportunities of observation for 
years, a member of our faculties Ciinnot fail to have 
an acquaintance Avith our real position aud our 
pressing wants, which no stranger could possibly 
possess. A visitor, who simply looked upon the 
externals, marked our piles of beautiful and har- 
monious edifices, which take a high place among 
the educational buildings of the world, saw our 
carefully selected apparatus, our fine laboratories, 
our happy beginnings of libi'aries, already rich in 
special departments, might feel assured that we 
must be munificently endowed. When he read the 
list of men of eminence who form our corps of 
instructors, learned of the growth of the number of 
pupils, saw how the old departments had been en- 
larged and strengthened, and how many new and 
healthy interests had been created, noted how cau- 
tion and progress have worked together in giving 
a steady and safe growth in every line of advance 
throughout the eventful last twelve years, he might 
think that our imminent problem would soon be to 
find new spheres of activity. When he was told 
that these vast improvements had been suggested 
or made possible by some of the most munificent 
bequests and princely donations in the history of 
endowments, he might suppose that the past gave 
such a ofuarantee for the future that we needed 



26 

little now but fresh schemes to break the way to 
fresh glories, l^or can it be denied that the facts 
on which such an enthusiastic judgment might rest 
are substantial facts. They are not overstated. 'Not 
only have great things been planned, but great 
things have been accomplished. Yet the theory is 
not wholly true ; not that it rests on untruth, but 
that it does not rest on the whole truth. It exag- 
gerates nothing which it takes into account, but it 
does not take everything into account. Before we 
can tell whether an institution be rich we must 
know not only what is its capital, but what interest 
that capital pays. An endowment in expectations 
may create a Department, but it will not meet its 
expenses, and the credit which facilitates the mak- 
ing of debts will not pay them. Moderately large 
endowments are not adequate to gigantic plans. 
The most plausible hypothecations are sometimes 
the most illusive. The man who is familiar with 
that open secret, the real position of the Univer- 
sity, knows that we need very much more endow- 
ment, even for our present work and our present 
liabilities. Great Universities are stupendous chari- 
ties, and in one sense the greater they are the 
more they cost, the more they need, and the less 
they pay. They are not meant to make money, but 
to make men, and no University can do both. The 
University that deals or is dealt with in a niggardly 
way will do neither. 

We have not " exhausted worlds," and are in no 
need of "imagining new." We have paid much, 
but we have not paid for what we have, for we have 
very much ; and there is a great deal that we need 



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27 



for which we are not yet even in debt. The Uni- 
versity is sanguine and perplexed in the midst of 
great plans imperfectly carried out, plans in which 
the future must be won or the past be lost, plans 
whose yet unrealized history is to determine whether 
they shall be her glory or her shame. She is poor 
in her wealth, weak in her strength, embarrassed in 
her increase — with glorious ends and with crippled 
means, suffering at once from the reputation of 
wealth and the pressure of poverty. Her hope 
breaks like a star through a cloud, bright but dis- 
tant, while her care sits upon the pillion, with its 
grisly arms around her. 

We welcome in the Provost one who, we trust, 
will catch inspiration from difficulty, and will" bear 
a decisive part in giving us a University which will 
justify our highest pride. To do this it must be 
more than a big local school ; it must be the educa- 
tional centre of Pennsylvania, one of the greatest 
of institutions in the judgment of the wide world — 
a Keystone University for the Keystone State. 

The Faculties welcome their new Provost because 
in the changes demanded for his official position he 
embodies great concessions to a need imperatively 
felt, and long and urgently pressed — the need of a 
better organization in respect to the relations of the 
Board and of the Faculties. We are now unified 
governmentally by having our supreme executive 
officer in common. The Provost who approaches 
the Faculties from the Board, approaches the Board 
from the Faculties. Help is given to the more 
perfect understanding and sympathy which are 
indispensable to the two general co-organizations. 



The inevitable danger of an imperfect practical 
unification is, that each body isolates its particu- 
lar rights and duties, and is tempted to think that 
it is for itself and the other for it. A Board may 
come to look upon the Faculties almost as if they 
were its personal servants. A Faculty may come 
to look upon a Board as if a Board were a mere 
contrivance for the supply of temporal means. 
" We employ you to do work for us," sums up the 
impression upon the one side. " You pay us for 
our work," is the tacit explanation of the bond 
on the other. The result is a hiring body, and a 
body of hirelings. The Faculty of a University 
is its soul — but without a Board of Trustees it 
might be a disembodied soul, or a soul " without 
enough body to cover it decently." A University 
depends indeed at last upon its Faculties, l^o 
buildings or endowments can be vast enough and 
rich enough to compensate for the want of able 
and devoted teachers. A Chapel of St. Ursula is 
not a University, however symmetrical may be 
the arrangement of its empty skulls, or artistic the 
groupings of its dry bones. It is impossible to 
create living Universities out of dead professors. 
Here at least the theory of spontaneous generation 
will not hold. ISTothing but life evokes life. The 
vital spark and the moral force of Universities are in 
their Faculties. You cannot degrade the Faculties 
either by the way in which you make them, or by 
the way in which you treat them, without degrad- 
ing the Institution. The supremest glory of a 
Board is the creation of noble Faculties, unless 
it make that glory its shame by abandoning or 



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m 



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29 



slighting the work of its Own hands. True 
Faculties, therefore, of right feel that they ought 
to be esteemed very highly for their works' sake. 
Faculties are indeed means, not the end ; but they 
are the means nearest the end, and entitled to be 
considered next after the end. But, on the other 
hand, the Faculties depend upon the Trustees. 
Not only does their existence depend upon the 
wisdom which chooses fit men, and provides for 
them, but their completest success in education 
and discipline is impossible unless the Trustees 
comprehend their worth and give them the fullest 
moral support. 

An army divided by the conflict of authority 
between two able generals may be beaten by the 
army which has but one general, even though he 
be a poor one. " One bad general is better than 
two good ones, at the head of an army." So says 
the highest military authority in expressing the 
imperative need of unity. When a Faculty and a 
Board are discordant authorities, an institution is 
torn apart by the forces which should consolidate it 
Unity is efficiency ; severance is destruction. A 
common headship promotes a common heartship. 
The external and the internal cannot each have a 
head of its own, and a heart of its own. They 
ought to be two sides of one organism, knit into 
unity by one head and one heart, — and an aid to 
this is what we welcome in the new relations of 
the Provost to the Board. 

This happy advance in organization is indeed 
associated with other changes, not like it, the out- 
growth of general and thoroughly tested convic- 



30 



tions, but necessitated by special conditions. In 
the nature of the case, as regards these changes, the 
Faculties, like the Board itself, can walk at best 
only by faith. There is yet no vision to give them 
aid, no experience to inspire assurance. Experi- 
ments can be tested only by experiment. Mean- 
while the Faculties will not manufacture prophecies, 
and then go to work to fulfil them ; they have no 
wish that is father to their fear ; but are heartily 
resolved that they will bring to the untried methods 
loyal purpose and honest co-operation. 

We welcome our new Provost, because we know 
that he has felt an interest in the University which 
has led him to watch, with sympathetic study, all 
the steps by which it has made its latest advances. 
In every question in which his own Faculty has 
been called to decide between the higher and the 
lower standard, he has stood with the higher. In 
all departments of the University there has been 
fresh life ; new plans have been vigorously urged, 
and vast strides have been taken. An incoming 
administration will carefully study a successful 
and brilliant administration which preceded it. 
While the University stands, it will stand as a 
memorial of the energy and self-consecration of 
our late Provost, who brought to his work an 
enthusiasm which inspired enthusiasm, a tireless 
industry and persistence, a singleness of purpose, 
and an unwearied concentration of effort which 
surmounted the most formidable obstacles; and 
when its walls have crumbled, its history will pre- 
serve for all generations to come, in the perpetual 
freshness of grateful recognition, the invaluable 



titaMiaiiimikijttmuasii 



,.lii.A- .■■■..■ 



31 



services of Dr. Charles J. Stille. Ko after ad- 
ministration can afford to efface the footprints of 
the past, to ignore the work which has been done, 
to leave it in the temporary incompleteness which 
is the result of its greatness, or decline to move in 
the line of its promise. The trail of the pioneers 
must be broken into a highway, or the thorns of 
the wilderness will overrun it again. 

But the monumental tribute to the administra- 
tion which passes, is not without its antedating for 
the one which comes. The University buildings 
as they stand have one edifice, saddest and holiest 
of them all,' which is already a guarantee that to 
the achievements of professional skill and success 
our new Provost brings a heart yearning for noble 
work and an energy which performs it. In de- 
fiance of the prosy pragmatism of anatomy, and 
sustained by the authority of Solomon, we are sure 
that the heart of our Provost is at his right hand. 
To him who has pleaded for mercy to the helpless 
sick as a lover would plead his own cause; who, 
working with other men of good will, took by tacit 
election the headship among them ; who has 
touched with a master hand the springs of influ- 
ence — to him public esteem has given the wreath, 
as the moral architect of our Hospital. The Hos- 
pital is the headstone of our beneficent work. 
By it, the University, long the mistress of human 
Arts and Sciences, has become the direct hand- 
maiden of the Heavenly pity. 

The record of our Provost here has helped to 
give him the reputation of undertaking great 
things and of failing in nothing he undertakes. 



82 



That reputation is already half success, and that 
reputation is now to be put into the crucible, and 
we believe will endure it. That our Provost will 
bring his energy to bear impartially on every in- 
terest of the University, that he will show no 
favoritism, that he will cultivate each part for 
the benefit of all parts, 'and advance the whole for 
the benefit of each, that he will see to it that no 
department shall by its inertness become parasitic 
on the others, or by its disproportioned stimulation 
develop into a beating aneurism on the body — 
these are the beliefs of the Faculties which prompt 
their welcome. 

That by the gracious Providence of Grod, to 
which our University owes all its successes, and 
on which depend all its anticipations, our Provost 
may be endowed with the full spirit of his ofl&ce, 
the wisdom to plan, the moral courage to defend, 
and the strength to execute ; that he may be sus- 
tained in the effort and cheered in the trials which 
belong to his exalted and difiicult position — these 
are the wishes, these the hopes, these the prayers, 
in which the Faculties desire to embody their 
purest and warmest Welcome. 



fc!c^««-)*^--«'*v>>s»wi->»v»i(«;vi«>*v»*><ti<.' 



ADDRESS BY WILLIAM PEPPER, M.D., 



PROVOST OF THE UNIVERSITY. 



laMtOMMMrilialMi 



i^au^/uiuiaatitit 



^^i^t£j^4>3^-± 



ADDRESS BY PROVOST PEPPER. 



It is according to time-honored custom, that, 
having received the keys of my office as Provost 
of the University of Pennsylvania, I am now per- 
mitted to address you as the official representa- 
tive of this venerahle Institution, It is, indeed, 
a custom sanctioned as well by illustrious prece- 
dent as by its apparent fitness, since it may rea- 
sonably be assumed that, under ordinary circum- 
stances, the tenure of office of each Provost or 
President marks in the history of a university an 
epoch, characterized more or less strongly by the 
individual qualities of the man, and embracing the 
origin of important movements and the develop- 
ment or modification of plans already in oj^eration. 
No opportunity can be found, therefore, so well 
fitted for submitting to the graduates and friends 
of a university a statement of its recent pro- 
gress and of the measures contemplated for its 
future advancement, as that on which he, to whom 
has been intrusted the task of directing this devel- 
opment in accordance with the spirit and traditions 
of the past history of the Institution, first appears 
as its- official representative. Such a statement 
should not be expected to contain matters of a start- 



36 



ling or novel character. Just as the life-power of 
a great institution, with its hoarded wealth of the 
devotion of those who have faithfully served it and 
generously supported it ; of the piety, wisdom, 
and learning of the teachers who have adorned 
it; of the achievements of its sons who have illus- 
trated it, exceeds that of any individual, so much 
the more necessary is it that its life-history shall 
be one of natural and progressive development. 
While within certain wide limits the greatest ac- 
tivity and expansion are desirable, it is essential 
that there shall be a true continuous progress, and 
not a series of abrupt, violent, and ill-combined 
movements, inspired by caprice or uncontrollable 
restlessness. 

In all vigorous organizations destined to perfect 
development there are, however, occasional periods 
of extraordinary change and activity, when growth 
is rapid and when new and varied powers display 
themselves. This is true no less of nations and of 
great institutions than it is of individuals. Through 
such a period of rare developmental activity has the 
University of Pennsylvania been passing during the 
last decade : and the changes that have occurred in 
that time as affecting the condition of the various 
departments ; the organization of the corporation ; 
the relations of the University to the community; 
and the claims that it may fairly make upon its 
graduates and upon all friends of higher education, 
are so great as to demand our careful consideration. 
One who can recall the contracted space contain- 
ing the modest University buildings of ten years 
ago need but turn to the new grounds, compare 



liiiiiii 



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.t,„....;.^.i..^—>j«;.,..>^i,v>.t..^- 



37 

atively ample but still inadequate, where stand 
the group of spacious halls erected since that date, 
to appreciate what the development of the various 
departments has been. Even to enumerate the 
important advances that have been made in the 
educational system and position of the University 
would occupy too much space. 

The methods of study in the Academic Depart- 
ment have been improved and its resources greatly 
strengthened ; and since the adoption of the elec- 
tive system to as great an extent as the policy of 
this University regards as desirable, it offers such 
advantages as must ensure it constantly increas- 



The Towne Scientific School, endowed by the 
princely munificence of its founder, has attained 
such completeness of organization, and such 
abundant facilities in most branches of technical 
education, as faiily to entitle it to the prominent 
position it has rapidly acquired. 

The Department of Medicine, freed from the 
trammels of an effete system, has strengthened its 
claim to be the foremost, as it is the oldest and 
most celebrated, of the Medical Schools of America. 

The Law School, animated by an active and 
progressive spirit, has exhibited such gratifying 
evidences of its powers and capacity, and has 
gained in reputation so rapidly, as to justify the 
brightest hopes for its future. 

While these oldei* departments of the Univer- 
sity have thus advanced, the new School of Music 
has acquired a creditable position ; and the Depart- 
ment of Dentistry has at once assumed a leading 



38 

position among the schools where this important 
branch of professional edn cation is pursned. 

The total number of students in attendance at 
the University has increased from 575 in 1870 to 
969 in 1881, a gain of 60 per cent. ; the number 
of professors has increased from 31 to 44 in the 
same time ; and, to indicate the extent to which 
practical instruction has been introduced, the num- 
ber of demonstrators has advanced from 2 to 25. 

It is impossible to pass from this hasty summary 
of the advances in the strength and organization of 
the various departments of the University without 
pausing to pay a tribute of hearty admiration to 
the leader in this onward movement, to whose sus- 
tained enthusiasm and ceaseless energy its success 
is largely due. The task of inaugurating extensive 
changes in a long-established institution ; of arous- 
ing widespread interest and zeal at a time when 
they had flagged ; of organizing a complicated and 
yet thoroughly practicable system of education in 
two of the most important departments of the Uni- 
versity ; of collecting a corps of highly competent 
teachers, imbued with earnestness and lofty aims 
similar to his own; of winning the confidence of 
the community, the cordial co-operation of his col- 
leagues, and the respect and affection of the stu- 
dents; — this task was, indeed, one requiring rare 
qualities as an organizer, a leader, a teacher, and 
a man. As an alumnus of the University ; as a 
teacher in one of its departments during the period 
referred to; and now as the representative of the 
Board of Trustees, — lean testify to the general feel- 
ing of admiration for the work done, and for him who 









(««..i*xATiV«il»as»>»;».><<l<Bi'iti*'J**>i:(ui, 



39 

bore so large a share of the burden. Well for our 
beloved University was it that at such a crisis in 
her history so able and devoted a leader was found. 
The good work he has done will long survive his 
departure from his official position; and when, in 
the distant future, the historian of this University 
shall record the services of those who have most 
contributed to her proud position, among the fore- 
most must stand the name of Charles Janeway 
Stille. 

'No less important changes have meantime taken 
place in the internal organization of the University ; 
some of which are of such recent occurrence that, 
even before this audience, I may be pardoned for 
alluding to them. 

The Board of Trustees, in which the corporate 
rights of the University are vested, owes its present 
composition to an Act of Assembly passed Sept. 
30, 1791, which provided that the Board should con- 
sist of twenty-four members, with the Governor of 
Pennsylvania, for the time being; and that the 
Governor should be President."^ For many years 
past, circumstances have prevented the Governors 
of Pennsylvania from occupying their official 
position in connection with the Board and the Uni- 
versity. The link between the University and 
the State has thus been but little recognized ; and 
yet it seems to me most important that it should 
again become a real and vital one. There is no 
question of State interference or control, since the 

* The seat of SUite Government was transferred to Harrisburg in 
1812. 



40 



authority of the University is clearly defined and 
independent ; but, on the other hand, the associa- 
tion that is implied by the fact that the Governor 
for the time being is President of the Board of 
Trustees of the University, shows that from the 
beginning this was designed to be, not a local in- 
stitution of this city, but truly the University of 
Pennsylvania, the great central representative in- 
stitution of a great and populous State. I must 
regard it as of good omen that, on this occasion, 
the highest function of the Governor in his ofiicial 
connection with the University has been performed 
in person; and by one whose scholarly attainments 
are no less conspicuous than are his public char- 
acter and position. 

As time advances, the advantage of a large Board 
of Trustees becomes, and will become, more and 
more evident. It makes it more probable that a 
broad, catholic, and non-sectarian spirit will always 
animate the administration of the University. It 
renders it possible to secure the services of men, 
eminent in every walk of life, who may bring to 
the study of the questions that arise in the various 
departments the special skill and knowledge of 
experts, combined with sound practical judgment 
and general culture. Such a corporation will never 
be unduly controlled by the views or personal in- 
fluence of any one man; and its slowly changing 
composition ensures a settled and abiding policy, 
faithful to tradition, and yet steadily progressive. 
Large as its numbers are, the duties devolving on 
the members are onerous and responsible, and 
from the earliest days of the University to the 



^^lfcf**""*'''^*****''^''*lTr^-^^Vl^-^inAlii^«t^ ■iriii >!■« —lii in mil itii liti Anr-iiini r il i I iiv 1 1 V ' i i-i[lin"-'i-'rf im rr 



41 



present time tliey have been discharged, by succes- 
sive generations of eminent citizens, with scrupu- 
lous fidelity and with singular devotion. 

As regards the relations of the Faculties to the 
corporation, important and salutary changes have 
been made in the past decade. It is of course im- 
possible that in the various departments of a great 
University, an exact similarity shall exist in such 
points as the character of preliminary examina- 
tions, the mode of arranging and grading studies, 
the duration of the course of study; but it is 
vitally important that, in all that concei'us its 
internal organization, and the relations of its 
Faculties to each other, to the Board of Ti'ustees, 
and to the students, the greatest uniformity shall 
prevail ; so that each department shall regard 
itself chiefly as a component part of the entii'e 
University. "Without this, it is impossible for a 
vigorous and genuine University spirit to be main- 
tained, pervading alike Faculties and students. 

Equally essential is it that, as regards the 
special interests of each department, the greatest 
possible power and authority should be lodged in 
the hands of the respective Faculties. Thei-e can 
be no healthy or sustained activity on the part 
of any public officials unless they are actuated 
by a high sense of their individual respousibility. 
There can be no intelligent sense of responsibility 
unless it is based upon the feeling that there 
has been conferred the power necessary for the 
successful discharge of duty. There can, there- 
fore, be no question as to the wisdom of the 
recent amendments to the statutes of the Uni- 



42 

versity (January, 1881), which delegate to the 
Faculties of each department the administration 
of discipline; the approval of all requisitions for 
supplies ; the decision as to applications for free 
scholarships ; the care and supervision of the 
buildings and grounds ; and the control of all em- 
ployes. The Dean of each Faculty becomes the 
executive officer of that Department, and the 
practical autonomy of the Faculties is estab- 
lished. There will inevitably arise, under the 
continued discharge of these enlarged duties, a 
keener sense of individual interest in the welfare 
and progress of each department. 

Spacious halls, rich collections and libraries, and 
munificent endowments are necessary adjuncts to 
a great University ; but they do not and cannot 
render a University great. This can be done solely 
by the work of its teachers ; by their learning ; by 
their zeal and ability in teaching; by their personal 
influence over their students ; and by their wider 
influence over the intellectual life of the surround- 
ing community. JSTo services rendered to a people 
can exceed in value those of the successful edu- 
cators of its youth ; and for services so responsi- 
ble, so difficult, and demanding such rare qualifi- 
cations, no honors or rewards would be excessive. 
Yet it would almost appear that the people im- 
agine that these exceptional and valuable men are 
to be secured in any number, and for salaries 
barely adequate to support a decent existence. 

The love of knowledge and culture for their own 
sake, and the fascination of teaching, do indeed 
lead many a man of the highest ability to neglect 



■^'rm 



i,^^ 



43 



the lucrative occupations of life and to devote him- 
self for long years to intense study and to the art 
of teaching. But the purest zeal might well grow 
languid, after years of labor, with no more adequate 
reward than the cheap title of Professor, and a 
salary — small in comparison with that of many 
salesmen— and pitiful in comparison with that of 
the officials of other large corporations. 

I would not imply that the spirit actuating 
earnest teachers is often a mercenary one. Proba- 
bly no more disinterested body of men exists in 
any community. But I would urge the wisdom 
and policy of securing only the best and most 
energetic men, of paying them liberally for their 
whole time and strength, and then of enlarging 
their duties and opportunities of teaching so as to 
develop and utilize their full powers. When this 
is done, let a community exact from those to 
whom is entrusted the education of its youth — from 
the lowest to the highest stage — the very best 
work; let them insist by the irresistible force of 
an enlightened and cultured public opinion that 
they wdio are set in the high places of learning shall 
be the most thoroughly fitted for their posts ; the 
exaction will be cheerfully met, and the criticism 
be gladly borne, if at the same time the hands and 
hearts of the teachei-s be strengthened by the cor- 
dial appreciation of a community — competent to 
criticize because itself aiming at a high standard 
of culture, and authorized to exact because willing 
to reward liberally. 

In no one paiticular are the changes concerning 
the Faculties of the University more important 



44 



b-^ \i 



than in establishing the eminently proper and ne- 
cessary rule that each Facult}^ shall administer its 
own discipline. It is a matter that closely con- 
cerns the entire commnnity, that the students of 
this University, already numbering nearly one 
thousand, shall learn thoroughly the various sub- 
jects to which they apply themselves. But it is 
also a matter of the greatest moment that they shall 
acquire, during their University life, a due devel- 
opment of character, and a manly tone, self-reliant 
and vigorous, but yet deeply tinged with respect 
for law and for the rights of others. To know 
that the administration of discipline is tardy and 
indirect, and that an appeal may be made from the 
sentence imposed by a Professor or a Faculty to 
a Provost, or to any other authority, is directly 
provocative of insubordination ; while the mere 
i'act thut the Professor or Faculty whose rules are 
infringed has full and conclusive authority to deal 
pi'operly with such infraction, is a most potent 
ofuarantee ag-ainst disorder. 

But, after all, it is not to elaborate rules of disci- 
pline that we are to look for the prevention of truly 
reprehensible acts. The best safeguard against 
these is the cultivation of a high-toned Univei'sity 
feeling, aided by the silent influence of the Chris- 
tian spirit that pervades our Institution. Its or- 
ganization has now reached a point where it is 
impossible for the students of one department to 
regard those of the other departments in any light 
save as comrades and members of the same college. 
All must feel themselves equally bound to protect 



MtiiM-k^ 






45 



her reputation, and to govern themselves by the 
best traditions of University life. 

If, in the larger world outside, no force influences 
men so powerfully as that of public opinion, it should 
be the case in the lesser world of a University that 
the sustained sentiment of Class after Class against 
mean, iingentlemanly, or outrageous actions should 
render their repetition practically impossible. The 
passage, year after year, of a body of young men 
imbued with such feelings, as well as with a rea- 
sonable regard for intellectual pursuits, from the 
Universities into the general communit}^, must 
exert a constantly increasing and most beneficial 
influence upon the tone of society and of public 
life. 

Such changes in the powers and duties of the 
various Faculties have at once made possible and 
necessitated important changes in the functions 
and position of the Provost, who is the official 
head of the University. Owing to peculiarities in 
its origin and development, his relations were with 
the undergraduate department alone, until with- 
in a few years past, when the Provost was declared 
the President of each Faculty, and was invited to 
a seat at the meetings of the Board of Trustees. 
Still, while this was an important step in the co- 
ordination of the various departments of the Uni- 
versity, it added little to the real power of the 
Provost, or to his ability to influence the general 
policy of the Institution. At the same time, the 
addition of new departments, the erection of new 
and important buildings, the large increase in the 
corps of professors and instructors, and in the num- 



46 

ber of students, rendered it utterly impossible for 
anv man to attend to the infinitude of details that 
formerly came under the Provost's supervision. 
But even if possible, such concentration of his 
time and attention upon matters of mere detail 
would of necessity divert him from those larger 
interests of the University which his peculiar offi- 
cial position would enable him to advance most 
successfully. 

The recent amendments to the Statutes have 
finally placed the Provost in his natural relation 
to the entire Institution. The charter of the Uni- 
versity* renders it impossible for him to be a regu- 
lar member of the Board of Trustees ; and after 
very careful reflection upon the advantages to be 
derived in this and in other directions from modi- 
fications in this charter, it has been generally con- 
ceded that they are overbalanced by the possible 
disadvantages involved in an application to the 
State Legislature, and an abandonment of the 
present independent position of the University. 
The same object has, however, been accomplished 
practically by declaring the Provost to be the 
President ^jro temjjore of the Board of Trustees, 
with the power of appointing its committees.f 
Allusion has already been made to the enlarged 
duties and functions of the several Faculties, by 
which the organization of each department is ren- 



t^:1 



* Act of Nov. 27, 1779, Section 10, "Provided always, that if any 
trustee of the said University shall take any charge or office under the 
said trustees other than that of treasurer, his place shall be thereby 
vacated." 

f Excepting the Committee on Ways and Means. 






47 

dered uniform and complete, and by which the 
Provost is for tlie future relieved from veiy much 
of the detail work that formerly devolved upon him. 
Not that this change of system has lessened his 
control over the working of each department, or 
his power of supervising and estimating the results 
of the work of each professor and of each student. 
On the contrary, it has foi- the first time rendered 
it possible for him to exert his proper influence; 
and by the establishment of a thorough system of 
reports from the various departments to secure an 
accuracy and scope of information nnattainable 
while he was hampered with the details of disci- 
pline and of routine administration. It has always 
been thought desirable, though not essential, that 
the Provost should hold a chair in one of the de- 
partments, so that his practical experience as a 
teacher should be maintained; and if now, for the 
first time in the history of the University, a teacher 
has been selected from the Medical Department to 
fill the position of Provost, it must be felt that the 
choice has been largely influenced by the brilliant 
record of that department, and by the admirable 
results that are attending its efibrts in the cause of 
higher medical education. 

The growth of the University during the past 
decade has been, it is true, highly satisfactory; but 
it is evident that, with the ample facilities now 
provided, and with the large opportunities that 
present themselves, there remains a far larger de- 
gree of activity to be attained. I prefer in the* 
first place to address myself to the undergraduate 
department. Important as the professional schools 



48 



are in the general scheme of the University, it is 
largely by the numbers and standing- of its under- 
graduates that its strength must be judged. Their 
numbers have increased from 183 in 1870 to 283 in 
1880, a gain of 65 per cent. ; but even this latter 
figure is far too small when the vast population of 
this city and State is borne in mind. I am confi- 
dent that I am within the bounds of moderation 
when I say that, if this community were fully alive 
to the great practical benefits of a university 
education, and were fully aware of the advantages 
now offered by the University of Pennsylvania, the 
number of students in the undergraduate depart- 
ment alone would speedily reach 1000. 

There is, I am well aware, a widespread 
feeling that a university course is not the best 
preparation for a business life; and as the great 
majority of the young men of Pennsylvania and 
the adjoining States are destined for such pur- 
suits, it is notorious that a remarkably low 
proportion of them are sent to college. When 
a boy had no choice offered him but to follow the 
time-honored classical course at the University, it 
may have seemed that his acquirements would not 
assist him materially in a business career. With 
the introduction of many new subjects into the 
curriculum, the adoption of the elective system of 
studies, and the development of more direct, for- 
cible, and practical methods of instruction, this 
objection became much less valid ; and when, in 
1875, the Towne Scientific School was established, 
such large facilities were offered for studies directly 
bearing on practical life that it was deprived of 






JiiArBM^Miiii liiWi^i tfii i ii li i'lii 1 1 ' 






49 

much of its remaining force. A striking proof of 
this is shown in the fact that while the students 
in the Department of Arts increased from 123 in 
1870 to 142 in 1880, those in the Scientific School 
increased from 60 to 141 during the same period. 
There is reason to believe, however, that there is 
still demanded, not merely a freedom of election 
between classical and scientific studies, but a com- 
plete course of study specially adapted for those 
who are destined for business or commercial life: 
and among the projects that will receive the care- 
ful consideration of the University authorities is 
one looking toward the establishment of a new de- 
partment for this purpose. 

But it has always seemed to me that this objec- 
tion implies a mistaken view as to what really con- 
tributes most to a young man's success in life. 
Certainly the measure of his success is not to be 
the age at which he can earn enough to support 
himself. What if, in the eager haste to get an early 
start on the road to wealth, that development of 
character and that training of the mental powers 
which will be needed to grasp great success w^hen 
it offers itself have been forfeited? What if, when 
in the prime of life, the successful man, sated with 
the mere accumulation of wealth, finds his spirit 
restless and unhappy within him, and craves those 
cultured tastes that may no longer be acquired? 
We all admire success, and respect successful 
men ; but it has been my lot to see so many in- 
stances where material success, secured by fierce 
driving activity from the earliest age without the 
counterpoise of careful mental training and sus- 



50 



tallied interest in intellectual pursuits, has brous^ht 
with it unhappiness and mental disease, that I have 
been led to believe that there is no better prepa- 
ration for a successful and a happy life than a well- 
selected course at some large university. 

I am aware, also, that there is a strong feeling on 
the part of many persons that a large city is not 
the best site for a great university. It is often 
asserted that it is necessary that the University 
shall be the main feature in the life of the 
otherwise insignificant place where it is situ- 
ated ; and historical precedents, such as those of 
Oxford and Cambridge, and some of the German 
Universities, are cited in support of the assertion. 
The facts of the case would seem to show, however, 
that this view is not a just one. I should rather 
infer from them that while a university may grow 
to be great and powerful in a small place, a great 
university in the midst of a great city will have 
many advantages over it. It is easy, of course, to 
mention illustrious cases in proof of this, as that 
of the universities of Paris, of Berlin, of Vienna, 
of Strasburg, of Leipsic; but it is more to our 
purpose to consider this question as it affects the 
interests of our universities in this country. An 
admirable classical and literary department may 
thrive any where that great teachers and good 
libraries are collected, but this is not so with the 
other departments of a University. When we 
consider the professional schools, the advantages 
of the great city are, of course, incontestable ; but 
in any department, as soon as studies that bear 
on practical life are begun, it is desirable that the 



&m0mM^:':y,.m:^,}sKm-^ 



51 

student shall have access to a sort of instruction 
that may be styled illustrative. 

Look, for instance, at the unrivalled opportuni- 
ties offered by Philadelphia to students in the 
Towne Scientific School, who are enabled to visit, 
study, and report on the vast and varied industrial 
establishments here maintained. It is impossible 
to supply, by any laboratory or museum, the prac- 
tical advantages that may thus be secured. 

The Law School can secure the services of the 
most eminent judges and lawyers whom it would 
be impossible to draw by a tenfold salary from the 
bench or bar to occupy the position of Professor 
in a provincial university. 

Many of the teachers in the Medical Depart- 
ment must be active practitioners of medicine or 
surgery, with a familiarity with every form of dis- 
ease and injury that can come only from daily work 
in the hospital and the crowded consultation-room. 
The laboratories where the student of medicine 
gains the most practical and important part of his 
education are the hospital w^ards where he is 
trained in the rudiments of his art, and the clin- 
ical amphitheatre where he sees the best results 
that medical skill, aided by good nursing and all 
helpful appliances, can secure in its hard battle 
with disease. 

If, indeed, we consider the numerous depart- 
ments that are comprised in our idea of a Univer- 
sity, it would seem impossible that it should be 
located elsewhere than in a large city. 

It is, however, especially against the location of 
the undergraduate department in a large city that 



52 



these objections are entertained ; and as this is a 
matter of vital moment to our University, I may be 
pardoned for considering it in some detail, and 
especially with reference to the youth of our own 
city and State. It may be felt, for instance, that 
a student going to a distant university, and to one 
not in a large city, would have greater opportuni- 
ties of becoming acquainted with students from 
other sections of the country, and thus of acquir- 
ing a wider knowledge of men, with the benefits 
that result from such intercourse. 

It is not sufficiently appreciated, I think, that 
the University of Pennsylvania is truly a national 
institution, when all of its departments are taken 
into consideration together. Of the students now 
entered on its rolls, thei-e are 873 from the Middle 
States (of whom 728 are from Pennsylvania) ; 26 
from the Eastern States; 48 fi'om the Southern 
States ; 39 from the Western States ; and 56 from 
foreign countries. What we need, therefore, in 
order to secure the fullest advantages of the in- 
tercourse of our young men with those of other 
sections, is not so much larger numbers, or greater 
variety of nativity, as it is a better university 
organization, and more adequate opportunities for 
communication between the classes of the different 
departments. 

It is manifestly the duty of the Provost, as it 
certainly will be one of his pleasures, to do all in 
his power to promote these closer relations of a 
personal and social character among the universitj^ 
students. 

Again, there are many who believe that it adds 



imM^^^.-H..^...> :^^:^:^f- 



hiArtii(i(iilitii(iiii<««wiiiiii«ii»iiig»«««t»a.<t- 



53 

greatly both to the pleasure and benefits of a uni- 
versity life, as tending to create and perpetuate a 
stronger college spirit, that the stn dents should, 
as far as possible, reside in dormitories. There 
seems, however, to be much to say on both sides 
of this question. Undoubtedly, in small towns, 
where the accommodations are limited and inferior, 
it must always be necessary to have extensive 
dormitories to accommodate any large number of 
resident students. But whether they are neces- 
sary when a university is located in a great city is 
a matter still under discussion. If it be found 
desirable to provide such halls, in order to attract 
and accommodate greatly increased numbers of 
students from a distance, it is certain that the 
University of Pennsylvania shall not long be 
wanting in this respect. But for the present it 
seems best to call attention strongly to the pecu- 
liar advantages which Philadelphia offers for the 
accommodation of students of every age from 
other localities. This city is essentiall}' a city of 
homes ; and all over its extent, and especially in 
the neighborhood of the University, are numerous 
private boarding-houses, well built and well kept. 
In order to test whether such exceptionally good 
accommodations may not be made to supply all 
that is elsewhere secured by dormitories, it is con- 
templated to form official lists of such boarding- 
houses as are worthy of the approval of the Uni- 
versity, and of parents careful of the well-being 
of their sons. It may be questioned whether the 
moral tone, the healthfulness, and the economy 



:| 



54 

secured by such an arrangement will not compare 
favorably with the conditions provided elsewhere. 

The period of life between fifteen and twenty- 
two years, which embraces the ages of most stu- 
dents in the various departments of American uni- 
versities, is undoubtedly a critical one. 

Few, who recall honestly their own past, would 
not be fain to screen their sons from the trials 
to which they were then subjected; and I know 
well that many fear that, on the contrary, the life 
of a college student in a large city is one peculiarly 
full of temptation. I am convinced that these 
dangers have been greatly overestimated. It is 
true that many boys who go to college develop 
bad propensities and habits; and we often hear 
such instances quoted as evidence of the injurious 
influence of college life. Who can determine what 
character those same boys would have displayed, 
what vices they would have contracted, had they 
been kept sedulously in the narrow limits of their 
villages, or, if city-born, had been educated in the 
strictest isolation ? l*^ay, rather, who can tell in 
how many instances the development of ruinous 
habits or defects of character has not been averted 
by the healthful influence of that free intercourse 
with manly young fellows that college life ensures ? 
Those who assert that boys educated in large cities 
are more disposed to be immoral, might well be 
more guarded in their assertions, if, like some of 
us, they were obliged to look into the inner life of 
those who have possibly never met their tempta- 
tions, but who certainly have never enjoyed their 
advantages. 



imgmig^iii^^ 



itt»«i]w*«l*j^— — -^^ • 



65 

In one other important resi3ect, indeed, the Chris- 
tian influence exerted in a city may be rendered 
most valuable. JS^o matter to what religious de- 
nomination a student may incline or belong, he 
will find its teachings fitl}' and eloquently repre- 
sented. At a University in any small centre, there 
is a strong tendency for the religious element to 
acquire a narrow sectarian character. Even for 
those students who sympathize with this, it is a 
doubtful good as compared with the larger range of 
religious teaching furnished by the churches of the 
same denomination in a great city ; but for all others 
it is an undoubted disadvantage. The strongly 
religious and the strictly non-sectarian character 
of the University of Pennsylvania has been its 
most distinctive feature from its foundation. The 
early Acts of incorporation clearly establish the 
fundamental principle that, while it was hoped the 
University, "through the blessing of Almighty 
God, would prove a nursery of wisdom and viitue, 
and be the means of raisiug up men of dispositions 
and qualifications beneficial to the public, in the 
various occupations of life," yet no religious body 
whatsoever should have any prejudice shown 
against it. Throughout its history, and nevermore 
truly than at the present time, the composition of 
the Board of Trustees and of the various Facul- 
ties, as well as the character of the religious instruc- 
tion given at the University, has maintained a broad 
and catholic spirit, untingedby the slightest preju- 
dice or exclusiveness. 

It seems impossible for any school which intends 
at the present time to exert its full influence in 



56 



the intellectual life of the community to neglect 
the subject of the higher education of women. I 
do not refer to any such question as that of opening 
the University classes to young women, because I 
regard it as settled beyond dispute that the co-edu- 
cation of the sexes is inadmissible. The University 
has recently been making cautious advances in 
this direction, and persons of both sexes are now 
admitted to certain lectures and laboratory work. 
It may be that this comprises as much as is 
safe or desirable to be done in this particular 
direction ; and as the special function of the Uni- 
versity is not the education of women, it seems 
proper that further action should await the ex- 
pression of some carefully matured wishes or plans 
on the part of those who may be assumed to rep- 
resent the interests of w^omen in this matter. It is 
evident, however, that some more definite provision 
is needed than now exists, to carry the education 
of women beyond the point generally attainable at 
present. The difficulty has been in part met by 
the establishment of special colleges, such as Vas- 
sar, Wellesley, Smith, or Taylor f^ and recently by 
the system of Private Collegiate Instruction for 
Women, in Cambridge , but other arrangements 
than these are required to provide the necessary fa- 
cilities for the large number of women who desire 
thorough and advanced education. This University 

* It has been decided that this Institution (founded by the late Dr, 
Joseph W. Taylor, of Burlington, N. J., who bequeathed $900,000 for 
the purpose) shall be known as the Bryn Mawr College. It is to be 
located near Bryn Mawr Station, on the line of the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road. 



:j«--a:.-R»Tjrjy^7JS^i2'g^SC»Sf«^SSS 



\^^.w,ii-yim^j(iff^(m 



i\itm]wkmiaiM\1itmiimUin\kk'ui, iV>i nn i 



57 

will gladly witness and co-operate with all earnest 
efforts to secure such facilities. It recognizes the 
urgent need of Philadelphia, as of every other great 
city, in this direction ; it realizes strongly the good 
that would follow from a more general diffusion of 
higher culture arid increased activity in intellectual 
pursuits among our women; and the powerful in- 
fluence which would be reflected upon its own fu- 
ture prosperity. There should be accessible, not 
only to those who desire to become teachers, or to 
those who are able or willing to take up their resi- 
dence at a special college, but to all women who 
exhibit the proper qualifications, a course of edu- 
cation in many respects the same as the usual 
University cui'riculum, in certain particulars dif- 
ferent, but of equal excellence and thoroughness. 
Proficiency should be tested by rigid examinations, 
and satisfactory attainments should receive suit- 
able certificates. The demand for such facilities is 
great and is constantly becoming more generally 
recognized. The particular arrangements for se- 
curing this object may vary in different places. If 
true to her traditions, Philadelphia will certainly 
assume a leading position in the movement ; and 
while this University cannot take the initiative, it 
will watch with the deepest interest, and be ready 
to assist as far as possible, all well-considered efforts 
towards this end. 

If the future of this University is to be worthy 
of its past, and of the wide opportunities that are 
offered to it, it must be largely through the co- 
operation and support of its graduates. I have no 
fear of being contradicted when I assert that, in 



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58 

spite of many notable exceptions, the general inte- 
rest they have heretofore taken in the welfare of 
their Alma Mater has not been a consuming one. 
This is not true when we consider the work of the 
Alumni Societies of special departments. The 
deepest and most active interest, and a large libe- 
rality, have been frequently displayed. But this 
has been at special times and for special objects; 
while what is needed is, that there shall be a 
vigorous organization of the graduates of all the 
departments, and that the general prosperity of 
the whole University — which requires incessant 
care, because its needs are changing and enlarging 
incessantly — shall be the object of their constant 
and zealous concern. 

This seems to me to be the greatest of all our needs 
to-day. The internal ofl'ganizatiou and the educa- 
tional facilities of the University are, in most re- 
spects, all that can be desired; but we need more 
active and universal co-operation among her gradu- 
ates, so that the entire community may be led to 
know and appreciate her true position. But if the 
Alumni are asked to thus unite in earnest support of 
the University, and to assist her noAV that her en- 
larged field of operations requires even more active 
support than ever before, it seems just and fitting 
that their connection with the University, and 
their interest in her affairs, shall not remain a 
matter of sentiment alone. 

They are, it seems to me, entitled to the fullest 
information in regard to her real position, plans, 
and requirements, and, as far as may be practicable, 
to a share in the control of her affairs. The simplest 



^"^^nmm 



59 



mode of accomplishing this would seem to be by- 
giving to the united Alumni of all the departments 
a definite representation in the Board of Trustees. 
How far this maybe practicable under the restric- 
tions of the Charter of the University is a ques- 
tion requiring careful consideration; but if no in- 
superable obstacles present themselves, I am con- 
vinced that the true interests of the University 
would be promoted by such an arrangement. 
There is, moreover, another way by which the 
Alumni could be admitted to a real and valu- 
able share in the supervision of the University. 
I allude to the formation of a body bearing to 
the corporation something of the relation held by 
the Board of Overseers of Harvard College to 
that Institution. I do not conceive that it would 
be necessary for such a body to be called into ex- 
istence by any special modification of the Charter, 
in order to give to it a positive and permanent 
value. Its functions would be purely those of 
supervision, criticism, and recommendation; and if 
it be deemed expedient by the Board of Trustees, 
and by the Alumni that some such body shall be 
called into existence, the high character of the 
men selected as its members, and the zeal they 
would display in promoting the welfare of the In- 
stitution, would speedily give it that importance 
which real utility alone can confer. 

Still another means suggests itself for promoting 
the active and permanent interest of the Alumni 
in our University. If a special work was accom- 
plished by their united efforts, a work that would 
be related to every department, and would influence 



60 



and advance the prosperity of each, it would serve 
not only as a memorial of their affection, but as a 
constant incentive to farther zeal. The opportu- 
nity for such an undertaking exists at this moment ; 
and the work of erecting a spacious and imperish- 
able library building, where the already large and 
constantly increasing collectionsof the University 
could be stored, where the students of all depart- 
ments would meet in the common enjoyment of its 
bounty, and to which future generations of Alumni 
w^ould look with gratitude as the most precious of 
the many advantages they had enjoyed — such a 
work is worthy of our united energies. The Uni- 
versity has other urgent needs at present; but 
none more imperative than this, and none that can 
so strongly solicit the cooperation of the graduates 
of every department. 

There are, indeed, other and urgent needs, for 
when a great Institution ceases to require con- 
stant and liberal assistance, it is only because it 
has ceased to grow, or even to be actively alive. 
It is a proud privilege of our University that it 
can point to a career distinguished by spotless 
integrity, and by a scrupulous discharge of ever}^ 
trust ; and that it can now offer itself to this vast 
and wealthy community as the most fitting agent 
for the adoption and execution of its educational 
and charitable purposes. 

The experience of all countries has shown con- 
clusively that institutions created for special pur- 
poses rarely carry out the original intention of 
their founders. 

But in the case of a great institution, each sepa- 



61 

rate trust confided to it must act only as an incen- 
tive to more and more vigilance in the discharge 
of former obligations, because closer public scru- 
tiny is invited, and because the operation of every 
such trust will, in the course of time, breed new 
demands upon the confidence and generous appro- 
bation of the community. 

Large as have been the gifts to the University 
of late years, they have only enabled her to lay 
the deep and broad foundations of her future pros- 
23erity. We still need more and larger endow- 
ments for existing professorships, that will pei- 
petuate the name and munificence of their founders. 
We need the establishment of many free schol- 
arships, by aid of which poor but meritorious 
students may be supported and educated and 
fitted for careers of usefulness. We need gene- 
rous additions to the general funds of the Institu- 
tion, so that every department may be maintained 
in the highest state of efficiency. These are some 
of the pressing needs of the University; and 
those who supply them may be assured of the 
largest returns on their bounty, and of the most 
faithful observance of their intentions. The net 
income of the University and Colleges of Oxford 
was ascertained, in 1874, to be $2,000,000 a year; 
and though generations must pass before the 
endowments of our American Universities ap- 
proach this in magnitude, the fact that such vast 
sums have elsewhere been given for the advance- 
ment of learning may well stimulate and encourage 
us. It is a hard matter to over-estimate the capa- 
city for growth and achievements of a man, even 



.JAlfW. 



62 



with his limited faculties and brief span of life; 
but it is impossible to form an adequate conception 
of the future power of a great University like ours, 
deeply rooted in the fertile soil of a peaceful and 
thoughtful people ; growing with their growth, 
and strengthening with their strength ; increasing 
its Faculties and its facilities as the mass of know- 
ledge multiplies; and diffusing its illuminating and 
purifying influence, through ever widening circles, 
until, like the sweet light of Sirius, it reaches the 
furthest confines of humanity. 



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